Extraction, Analysis and Statistical Comparison of Short-Term Hourly-Daily Water Consumption Patterns on Various National and Religious Occasions Throughout the Year; Case Study: Tehran City

Extracting and analyzing the water demand pattern of customers in water distribution networks can play an important role in appropriate planning for providing water demand. However, the water consumption pattern depends on various factors, and to understand the pattern more accurately, it is necessary to analyze these factors. One of the factors affecting water consumption is sociocultural issues, which can affect the volume and pattern of water consumption. In the current study, the effect of various national and religious occasions, as part of the sociocultural issues, on the water consumption pattern is evaluated. In this regard, the holidays of Nowruz, Sizdah Beh Dar, Yalda Night, Muharram decade, religious festivals of Qurban, Ghadir and Fitr are evaluated. The effects of seasonal changes, the month of Ramadan and holidays are also examined. To implement this, a dataset of water consumption records in a study area in Tehran over a period of 9 years has been created. Then, based on these data, consumption records on the occasions under study have been extracted. Next, the water consumption pattern is evaluated and analyzed by statistical analysis of the data. The results of the present study confirm the dependency of water consumption on the type of occasion and cultural behavior of people, in terms of volume and consumption pattern throughout the day. The results of the conducted analyses show that water consumption in the month of Tir, as the most consumed month of the year, is 33% higher than in the month of Farvardin and 30% higher than in the month of Dey. Also, the end of Esfand has a local peak and reaches its lowest amount during the days of Nowruz. In addition, water consumption on occasions such as Yalda Night or the first day of the year has specific behaviors at certain times of the day, which confirms the need to pay attention to these cases. The results of this study show that the water consumption pattern depends on the occasions and their timing and has specific behaviors throughout the day and at certain times of the day. Understanding this dependency helps in the optimal management of water supply and also increases the accuracy of models developed to predict water demand.